


Kind

by Val_Creative



Category: Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)
Genre: Blood, Canonical Character Death, Family, Gen, Heavy Angst, Sympathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-19
Updated: 2013-11-19
Packaged: 2018-01-02 00:49:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1050553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/pseuds/Val_Creative
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Do you think a heaven exists for a girl who drove her parents to a catatonic state before she could learn to speak their names?" /Extended scene for JLU "Epilogue".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kind

*

 

"The Joker didn't decide my alias for me," she says monotonously, her swing creaking, their hands still linked. "I thought of it before I met him. Because of the Queen of Hearts' talking cards."

"When I was captured by Cadmus, I could only have one book to read because I begged for _something_. Something to keep _me_ from going insane." Movement approaches from the right. They glance up untroubled as what looks like a footman with a head of a fish and another footman with the head of a frog strolling together past the other two, laughing heartily and switching powdered wings.

Batman confirms lowly, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

Ace nods, not looking at him and scooting her white boot in the dirt absently. " _Twinkle, twinkle, little bat… How I wonder what you're at…_ " She misses the smallest twitch on his face. Her foot pauses.

"Do you think a heaven exists for a girl who drove her parents to a catatonic state before she could learn to speak their names?" When Batman doesn't respond, her coal-lined eyes gaze into his vacant, masked profile and her stoic expression peaks into a thin smile. "…I didn't think you knew either."

"I'm going to return everything to normal. Don't worry about that. I just…" Her hand tightens inside his and Ace continues, her monotone rising a little into a tone of righteous indignation, "It's not fair. I never even got to be a normal girl for the thirteen years I've lived. Who went outside and got in trouble for breaking curfew. Who danced with her father because he was kind…"

Her large, dark eyes remain on him, examining him for what felt like the longest time. After another solemn moment, they drop to stare into her lap.

She feels him standing and is caught off-guard when Batman tugs on her limp hand. Ace's thin smile returns when his other hand is waiting for her to clasp. She begins to stand on her feet and falters when a sudden dizzy spell slams into her, knees buckling under her own weight. He catches her. "I'm sorry—"

Ace mumbles, "I'm fine… must mean it's happening soon."

Her teeth bite down on her trembling bottom lip.

Tears surface again, and she shields them with her thick, black hair as Ace bows her face from view. "May I…?" She trails off in a whisper.

Batman doesn't answer her. She tentatively steps forward and onto his feet, much larger than hers. A size that her own father's feet may have been if she had known him. He doesn't shake her off and slowly moves himself and Ace in a swaying and purposeful circle, their hands cupping lightly. Her head does not tilt up.

"Bury me with my parents… please… Batman."

"I promise I will."

One of her hands escape his and her first two of her willowy fingers press into the center of his forehead. At the invasion of his psyche, at the transmission of completely new information settling comfortably inside him, Batman backs away with a surprised groan. Ace falls back from him as well, her body crumpling.

Her head avoids the sand of the playground and instead finds a somewhat soft landing in the circle of one of Batman's arms. He hoists the rest of her up, her dulled eyes wide open, her facial expression frozen with a sort of serene amazement, her ears clotting from blood flow.

"… _Is this dying_?" Her breathing shortens then evens. He can feel her pulse weaken to fluttering. Her thoughts project into him like a tiniest flicker of candlelight in his mind's darkness. " _It's so… warm_ …"

" _Just relax now, Ace. You'll be fine_."

" _Your parents must have felt this. So warm… happy… don't think… they were… afraid."_

His arms clench. The sand dissipates into the park's dewy grass. The castle quickly fades to nothingness.

" _Ace_ …"

" _Begin at the beginning… and go on… till you come to the end… then stop_ …"

Her eyes shut. Her fluttering stills.

 

*


End file.
